Girls' Basketball Athlete of the Year: Casey Bennett

Casey Bennett has a hard time believing it’s all over. At least she’ll leave behind quite a legacy.

Bennett, who recently graduated from Warwick Vets, scored her 1,000th career point this past season for the ’Canes, one of just a handful of players in school history to accomplish that feat.

Reaching that milestone was fitting for a player who has been the face of the girls’ basketball team at Vets since taking over the primary point guard responsibilities her sophomore year.

“It is going to be sad,” Bennett said about her career coming to a close. “I gained a lot of confidence though. Freshman year, I was afraid to shoot the ball. I’ve come a long way.”

Shooting the ball wasn’t a problem for Bennett this season, as that was the best route to success for Vets. The team ended up 5-11, but in two games that Bennett didn’t play in, the team failed to score more than 25 points.

Bennett finished 11th in the state in scoring at 15.6 points, and the ’Canes needed all of them.

“You have to understand that the Warwick Vets girls’ basketball team has always been a tight knit family and they’ve always had each other’s back,” said head coach Owen Paquet. “They’ll do whatever it takes to progress and win as a team. Casey was the beneficiary of that mentality.”

Her 1,000th point came late in the season. She needed just two points to do reach it, and buried a three early in the first half to get the job done.

“I’ve thought about it since freshman year, how cool it would be, because I saw a girl from Pilgrim do it,” she said. “I thought, ‘Wow that would be really cool to do.’ Paquet told me I had the potential to do it.”

Next season will be the first since 2010 without Bennett playing a significant role for the team. Bennett, meanwhile, will attend Stonehill College and potentially try to walk-on to the soccer team.